A South Carolina woman's creation is helping everyone experience the eclipse — even the blind

A NASA team led by S.C. professor Cassandra Runyon has developed a solar eclipse braille book that will allow persons with visual impairments to experience next week's total solar eclipse. The "Getting a Feel for Eclipses" book is a tacticle guide

By

Up Next

A NASA team led by S.C. professor Cassandra Runyon has developed a solar eclipse braille book that will allow persons with visual impairments to experience next week's total solar eclipse. The "Getting a Feel for Eclipses" book is a tacticle guide

Blind people will see the eclipse — thanks to an SC professor and Spanish moss

Thanks to a South Carolina geology professor, visually impaired people can view the total solar eclipse — in braille.

The College of Charleston’s Cassandra Runyon partnered with David Hurd of the University of Edinboro to write a braille book about the event, which millions will watch Monday, Aug. 21, when the sun will be completely obscured by the moon and a shadow will stretch along the path of totality from Oregon to South Carolina.

Premium content for only $0.99

“Spanish moss is the sun, really rough cardboard is the moon and the Earth is smooth cardboard with sand to create the continents,” Runyon told ABC. “We used materials we had on hand, like the moss which happened to be hanging outside the office window.”

Runyon and Hurd have written braille science books for the past 20 years.

She credits her father, an artist, for encouraging her at a young to engage all of her senses and look at things from different perspectives.